32^nd Sunday in Ordinary Time-A

The Dedication of the Lateran Basilica

I Reading Ezekiel 47:1-2.8-9.12: A vision of the Temple, God’s house, where a stream of living water makes all things grow.

II Reading: 1 Corinthians 3:9-11: St Paul likens us to a building, founded on Christ, everyone has his or her part to play.

Gospel: John 2:13-22: Jesus drives the traders from the Temple and speaks of the new “holy place”, the sanctuary of his risen body.

Revelation 2: Jesus is Supreme Over God’s House, Jn 2:12-22

The commercial traffic in the Temple arose from the sale of sacrificial animals and from the changing of money into acceptable coinage. Both forms of activity were legal, but full of abuse, corruption, exploitation and it was to these Our Lord objected. God constantly cleanses His Church; the Lateran Basilica, home of Popes until the early fourteenth century witnessed the excesses of the early Papacy.

Jesus Christ has supremacy over God’s house, that is, over the temple or church. He alone has the right to rule and reign over God’s  house.

1. Jesus left Cana (v.12-13)

          a. He went to Capernaum for a short time

          b. He then went to Jerusalem to attend the Passover

2. His discovery of evil in the temple (v.14)

          a. He entered the temple

          b. He found the temple desecrated

3. His right to cleanse the temple (v. 15-17)

          a. The whip: A symbol

          b. His unique relationship to God: “My Father”

          c. His consuming zeal for God’s House

4. His power to erect a new temple (v. 18-21)

          a. His authority questioned

          b. His sign: A new meeting place for God and man

          c. His symbolic meaning: His Body-His death and resurrection

5. His objective achieved: The disciples believed the Scripture and the Word of the Lord (v.22)

Thought: The temple is not to be used a s a commercial centre. it is not be a place for buying and selling, marketing and retailing, stealing and cheating. It is not be profaned.

The temple is the House of God, God’s House of worship. It is to be a place of sanctity, refined and purified by God Himself. It is to be a place of quietness and meditation, a place set aside for worship, not for buying and selling where a person or believer gets gain.

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